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For the 4th time I was at the world famous annual hacker congress 33C3 which gathers in Hamburg, Germany. And it again blew my mind. To those who have never been: Its like the burning man festival invaded by thousands of scientists – the party is still there but, you know, with science. Or as hackaday puts it: “The Congress is a techno-utopian-anarchist-rave with a social conscience and a strong underpinning of straight-up hacking.”

Gated Communities or Open Communities?

In the four days while listening to talks about gravitational waves, playing one
concert myself and talking to many people I came to think about a specific problem: How can a small, vivid, and avantgardistic micro-society restrain the loss of grip and enthusiasm when suddenly becoming ‘cool’ and overrun by people from a different (in mean words = mainstream) culture?

The drum robot installation “MR-808 Interactive” gives an immediate feedback on how sound is created – with robots! Eleven little drum robots were build after the famous 1980s drum machine TR-808 and placed in a huge casing. The listener is able to see the sound physically evolving from the drum robots, a rare event when listening to electronic music. For the audience, it is an even rarer event to control the musical structure in a collaborative process with their
smart phones!

The installation “MR-808 Interactive” visualizes and uncovers the ongoing bond of digital interfaces and physical actions. The linkage of digital action and physical reaction is inherent to uncountable technical systems. But the traces are often obscured and incomprehensible for the public – ranging from an amazon order, where the user digitally triggers numerous physical events, to the digital control of an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) operating in combat.

The drum robot installation “MR-808 Interactive” is controlled via a web interface by the audience. It can be programmed in a collaborative process and plays the sound in real time. The audience stands in front of the robot accessing the music structures via tablets. The lightweight interface consist of a basic step sequencer, which is quickly comprehensible.
Materials and techniques used are: 3D-printing, wood, electronics and robotics for the robot; Node.js, Javascript for the interface, Arduino and Raspberry Pi as the hardware controllers.

The installation visualizes the bond of digital action and physical reaction in a creative way in the fields of contemporary art.